Escape By Any Means
by mmouse15
Summary: After the fight in the desert, Devastator's individual mechs want to escape the Autobots.


Author's Notes: This was written for lj user gestalt_love's challenge, First Snow. For this challenge, I didn't want to grab one of the gestalts that I felt was being written by very good authors, so I looked around for a different gestalt. As I was browsing through the TF wiki, I read this line: _Given that the film establishes multiple sets of Constructicons, it seems entirely possible that more than one "Devastator" could be formed._

Well, that set the plot bunnies to nibbling! Then as I read that Devastator was formed from nine vehicles in the movie (and verified by multiple rewatchings of the particular scene), this bunny continued to nibble and pester until I sat down and started writing.

Then as I did further research, hey, there are multiple Rampages, Long Hauls, and Mixmasters. Watched the movie again, and sure enough, at the same time Devastator is climbing the pyramid, Jetfire is fighting someone that looks very much like Mixmaster. Also, a Long Haul can be seen during the fire fight at about the same time. One of the Scrappers was the 'little one' taken to pieces to repair Megatron, but there's also a Scrapper that helps form Devastator. So, multiples all over the place, and that gave me the final piece of the story to feed the bunnies.

I hope you enjoy my interpretation of the movie 'verse Devastator.

* * *

Devastator hurt. The shot that had taken his right arm off and cost him his balance had sent a shock through his systems. The nine individuals reacted in different ways.

Scrapper had been directly hit by the shot from the human weapon. His spark guttered out while the other pieces were trying to recover.

Hightower managed to separate himself from the Rampage that had helped him make up the left arm. The two mechs forced their systems into robot mode and looked around at the devastation surrounding them. A large mech that seemed to be the Prime was fighting the Fallen and Megatron atop the pyramid, and dimly, both mech realized their danger and abandoned their fellows to their fate, scrambling to hide themselves and thus, moving away from the fight and toward another dig where large equipment was being used about sixteen klicks away.

The other Rampage and a Long Haul, having combined to form Devastator's left leg, struggled to get themselves untangled from each other. They also went into hiding, heading in a different direction from Hightower and Rampage.

Overload separated from Scavenger and slid into his vehicle mode to escape, while Scavenger took stock of his current team and their condition. Deciding that there was no help to be had, he called a retreat and took off, following in the tracks of Hightower and Rampage.

The green Long Haul went into vehicle mode and took off, using his vehicle's speed to put as much distance between himself and the scene of Devastator's defeat as possible.

Mixmaster had the hardest time. He was the most hurt and lay there, still in the mode of being Devastator's head, until the sun set and the cool desert air washed over him, cooling his overheated systems and clearing his processor slightly. He forced himself into vehicle mode, the grinding of parts indicating how badly he was damaged. He nosed the remains of Scrapper, verifying that he was dead, before slowly driving away, the pain of transforming having taken much of his energy from him.

During that night, the Constructicons put as much distance between them and the pyramids as possible, knowing that the Autobots and their human allies would be hunting them after they'd taken stock of their own situation.

Slowly the Constructicons worked, singly or in pairs, down the east coast of the African continent. They spent an entire day hiding in the jungle as fighter jets flew in large circles around their positions. Mixmaster, Overload and the Long Hauls could travel quickly in their vehicle mode, but Scavenger, Hightower and the Rampages were much slower and preferred to travel at night, when they could move into their robot mode and cover the ground quickly. Scavenger could move very quickly, his oversized wheels crushing everything in his path, although they made every attempt to stay to roads and not leave a trail behind them. During the day, they worked on helping each other fix broken plating and move parts closer to where they were supposed to be so their self-repair systems could do their best to fix the damage caused by the fall from the pyramid.

In this manner, they moved down the coast of Egypt to the country of Sudan and thence to the city of Port Sudan, where they managed to replace legitimate cargo with themselves. Mixmaster grumbled about slimy squishies in his cab, but kept his peace when Scavenger snapped at him.

Scavenger's final orders to the team before they broke up were, "Find other Constructicons. If necessary, form Devastators. We're going to try to rendezvous with Megatron or Starscream once we're in a safer place. Don't be stupid."

Mixmaster and the green Long Haul were put on one cargo ship, heading for China. Scavenger, Hightower, one of the Rampages and Overload were put on another which was bound for the United States. The other Rampage and Long Haul were put on a much smaller ship bound for South Africa. They would not meet up again for years.

On the big cargo ship bound for the United States, Scavenger began plotting a method for getting back to the Decepticon base on Mars. He needed a Scrapper. With five Constructicons, Devastator could be formed, so he was almost there. They were good fighters individually, but much more powerful in their combined form. Besides, the scout would be useful for getting them around without the humans noticing them. Perhaps he could get a Bonecrusher to join them, since a sextuplet Devastator was more stable than a quintuplet one. He sank into a light recharge, letting his systems finish their repair, unable to do more than plot on the ocean voyage to the United States.

* * *

Their arrival at the port of Charleston, in the southern United States, came late one day. The air was chilly, befitting the onset of the autumnal season in the northern hemisphere, and caused a few problems with the unloading of the cargo. The docks were slippery and the men unloading the ship were rushed. Scavenger had to force himself to not change and get out of the cables that were hoisting his form from the deck of the cargo ship to the dock when the cable slipped and dropped him, stopping when he was just above the water. Yells from the dock echoed as he hung there, debating internally whether he should just transform and bring the wrath of Megatron on his head, or trust the squishies and wait.

He waited. They finally got him on the dock and one of the squishies climbed into his cab and drove him to a large enclosed area that contained other construction equipment. He was joined shortly thereafter by Rampage. Overload came next, grumbling about the squishies and their incompetence. Hightower took much longer, the head squishie got tired of the close calls and forcibly replaced the incompetent hoist operator, but it took time for something the squishies called paperwork to get done and a replacement squishie to take his seat at the controls.

Scavenger thought sneeringly of the smooth operations of the Decepticons. After all, look at the Constructicons. They were clones of various builds. There were more Mixmasters and Scrappers and Long Hauls and Rampages than Scavengers or Hightowers or Overloads or Bonecrushers, but every Constructicon was built with the ability to gestalt and to swap places within Devastator as it was formed. Technically, it was possible to have a Devastator built solely of Scrappers, but it would be a small gestalt and not a very powerful one, so Scavenger had never actually heard of any group of Scrappers doing such a thing. It was much more common to have a mixture of the various builds form the gestalt, such as Megatron had them do in Egypt, but Scavenger supposed they would have to be even more flexible in the way they formed the gestalt on this new planet.

Finally, Hightower joined them in the enclosure. They waited until dark, then transformed and hopped over the fence, finding themselves in an old city. Hightower pointed out the river, and they quietly slipped into the water, moving north and west away from the city.

Klicks later, they clambered out of the water and surveyed their location. They were in a wooded location, a well lit open area to their left, darkened buildings to their right. They moved into the trees, mindful of the directive from Megatron to keep hidden until the time was right and found a road, continuing to work their way north, keeping out of sight. Overload laughed about the humans that never even saw them when they merely stepped off the road to let a car pass them by.

"They don't even see us!"

Rampage was less kind. "The squishies don't have internal scanners. They're totally worthless."

"Whatever. Don't they look around?" Overload couldn't believe how lucky they were getting.

Hightower scoffed, "They can't see in the darkness, either. Their optics are defective and only see in a very narrow range of light, covering about 400 nanocycles."

"So if we're not in the way of their light beams, they can't see us?" Scavenger asked.

"Can't move, either. Demolisher made that mistake. Their eyes are sensitive to motion." Hightower told them.

"Gotcha. So, we step aside and don't move and they won't see us?" Overload asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Hightower confirmed.

"Good to know. Let's move." Scavenger wanted to get away from this place. Too many squishies, not enough members to form a good Devastator, and too far away from a safe haven. They'd have to continue moving north and west to get to a place where they could take off without drawing undue notice.

* * *

The Rampage clone (he called himself Tumult) made a detour the next day and joined them at dawn, dragging a Bonecrusher behind him.

"Lookee who I found!" He caroled as he joined them in the little dell they were in.

Scavenger's burden seemed a bit lighter. Now they had a good defense, just in case they needed it.

They continued their journey, moving at night and hiding during the day. Cities were the easiest to hide in, there were always plenty of construction sites where they could blend in. There was always the chance they would be used during the day, but they finally figured out that there was a cycle to when they could safely hide and when they couldn't. It was going well until they got far enough north to run into a storm. The barometric pressure dropped, the wind picked up, and precipitation began falling from the sky, quickly covering the ground in white. The traffic dropped away, the humans diving into their holes to wait out the storm.

"What is this stuff?" grumbled Scavenger in irritation.

"Snow." Bonecrusher was a terse mech, never using two words where one would do.

"Snow?" Overload asked.

"Frozen water." Tumult added, peering through the obscuring swirl of white.

"Nasty," was Hightower's opinion.

"Look, we've got to find someplace to hunker down. We can't be out in this stuff." Tumult told them, taking a step forward.

"Why not?" Overload wanted to know.

"Look," Tumult said, pointing down. They clearly saw his treads in the white stuff covering the ground. He took three more steps, each clearly outlined in the snow. "They can track us too easily in this stuff. These prints are abnormal. We need to shift to vehicle form, which will slow us down but be explainable, or we need to hide until this storm had passed and it's safe for us to move again."

Scavenger saw the wisdom of this viewpoint. "Actually…this storm is pretty obscuring. We could take off now, head out to space, get back to the base."

"I like that idea," Hightower said. "Is anyone going to see us?"

"Dunno. We're in a pretty obscure area, low population, good cover." Overload pointed out.

"I dunno about you, but I want off this planet," Bonecrusher growled, "I hate this place."

"You hate everything," Tumult told him, "why would this different?"

"Squishies." was Bonecrusher's reply.

"Anything else?" Overload wanted to know.

"Weather." Bonecrusher told him.

"I suppose if we continue to ask him, he'll continue to list reasons to hate this planet." Scavenger said. "Let's get out of here."

They spread out and activated their thrusters, moving in unison, slowly rising through the swirling snow, light dancing off the flakes of ice. Their combined fuel burned, giving a glow in the storm as they rose through the atmosphere.

There were calls to various agencies about the glow in the sky, but no human vehicles could move to check it out in one of the worst storms to hit the eastern coast of the United States, and the Constructicons made it safely away, using their first snow storm as a cover for their escape.

The End.


End file.
